


A Twin Thing

by MelonMass



Series: The Scientific Method [3]
Category: Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Cartoon 2018)
Genre: Gen, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Leo and Donnie as twins
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-05
Updated: 2020-12-05
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:08:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,567
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27907219
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MelonMass/pseuds/MelonMass
Summary: As the twins of the family, Leo and Donnie of course have twinlepathy. Donnie can deny it all he wants, but Leo just knows things, you know?
Series: The Scientific Method [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1955035
Comments: 2
Kudos: 46





	A Twin Thing

Leo and Donnie were always like twins. Technically, they weren't twins, but they also were. They even have twinlepathy. Sort of. They just sometimes thought about the same kinds of things at the same time. And they could get a sense of what the other wanted. Of course, both of these were only noticed after the fact. Donnie tended to be quick to point out the whole twinlepathy thing isn't real because of that. Leo, however, always likes believing in that kind of stuff.

When Dad got a call from Raph, he just had a feeling it was Donnie. Something bad happened to Donnie. Hearing the way Dad ended the call, and the way he said to snag some first aid supplies before heading back, Leo was kinda scared. Of course, he rarely shows it when he's scared. He always uses one-liners and jokes to cope when he's stressed. Somehow, the blue leader is having trouble thinking of quips this time.

They get home, and the dads (he sometimes jokingly calls Draxum "Dad #2" or "Other Father." It's funny.) have Mickey and Leo stay out of the lab. They also send Raph out of the lab. He has blood on his hands and some on the front of his shell. Leo has a joke about serial killer movies that won't come out of his throat.

"Woah. Raph." Mickey speaks. He's scared.

"What?" Raph looks down at himself. "Oh."

"Is..." Mikey hesitates. "Is Donnie gonna be okay?"

_Yes, he will be. He has to be._

"Dad's looking after him now. He should be fine."

"Yeah, don;t worry, Miguel." Leo tries to act as normal and casual as he can. "I'm sure Donnie isn't as bad as Raph looks." He could make a better joke than that. Why is it hard?

"Yeah, I think I'm going to clean all of this off." Raph leaves for the bathroom. After a minute or so, Mikey leaves, too. He says he wants to draw something for Donnie. Leo... Leo isn't sure if he should leave or not. What's a good leader thing to do? Does he give the dads space to work? Does he stay as leader and the only brother still here, to be the first to get any new news on Donnie's condition. It doesn't feel right to go far.

Leo sighs and flops down on the floor next to the door. From here, he can sort of listen into the lab. Is that eavesdropping? Sure. Is that usually a bad thing? Well.... yeah. But as leader, Leo thinks he should be excused! He has right to know what's going on in the team. That's how it works, right?

Leo realizes he's zoned out. He hasn't been paying attention to what's being said in the lab. "The wound will close easily enough." Are they already wrapping things up in there? Leo expected an accident in the lab to cause a number of bad injuries. Especially with how Dad sounded while on the phone. "He might need more blood, however." Oh. _Oooohhh._ Leo wants to say a swear. A four letter word that begins with f, maybe.

"I thought you said you had it under control!"

"I do! It's not like he needs _a lot_ of blood!"

Splinter and Draxum don't argue that often. They've gotten a pretty decent dynamic. It must look pretty bad. The room probably looks worse than Raph did.

"Just go get one of the others. We can make do with that."

"Alright. Fine." Leo pretends to brood, but in like a fun way. Feet in front of him. Knees bent. Elbows on his thigh. One hand up for his face to rest on. The curtain for the lab flurries aside as Dad comes out. Leo acts surprised. Of course, he's already prepared mentally to give blood. He's already thinking of ways to hold this over Donnie when he says they technically can't be twins. _We're twins, man! Like it or not, you've got my blood in your veins._

Giving blood isn't so bad. Leo isn't scared of the sight of his own blood. Other's, however.... Leo looks around while he gives blood. It looks like the first Camp Slasher movie. Not the bloodiest of that series, but bloody enough. He wonders how they're going to clean it. He wonders if he can follow that blood trail back to the start without the dads noticing. It wouldn't be the first time he's done something like that.

They get the blood they need from him, and he's told to go somewhere to take it easy. Leo casually walks out of the room. He follows the blood trail as inconspicuously as he can. At the end of the trail, almost tucked away, he finds a shuriken with blood on one of the edges. _Well, that's not cool, Donnie._ Leo picks the weapon up with his toes. _I thought that was my thing._

Once he's out of the room, Leo picks up the sharp shuriken from between his toes and puts it in one of his pouches. He sighs. "Just what am I supposed to do about this, Donnie?"

"Leo?"

Leo snaps to attention. It's Raph. "Hey, bro. I see you got yourself cleaned up."

"Yeah." Raph scratches the back of his head. "I, uh... checked on Mikey before heading over here. Are you doing okay?"

"Psh! I'm fine. I just had to give a bit of blood. Nothing big."

"Oh."

"Yeeaaah." Leo shrugs and pats Raph on the shoulder as he walks past. "I'm going to relax in my room for a bit. Let me know if anything new happens with Donnie."

"Yeah. I've got it."

"You're the best!" Leo's smile slowly drops as he walks to his room. He doesn't really have much to smile about. He knows what that damn shuriken means. Donnie didn't get hurt by accident. He hurt himself on purpose. And dang it, Leo gets that! He hates that he gets that!

Leo locks his door as he gets in. Out of habit. He doesn't need to lock the door, does he? The blue leader lets out an aggravated sigh. He gets down on his knees and pulls out a box from under his bed. Within the box, he keeps several knives and shurikens. He thinks of using them. Just for a bit of a string. He has to restrain himself.

He debates on wiping the blood off. Whether or not it's dry, he doesn't like the idea of blood near his small, well cleaned collection. He also isn't sure if the blood should be wiped off. It's like, evidence, right? Leo ultimately decides to wrap it in tissues to put in the box. He'll use it to confront Donnie later. He'll even use the box to show Hey, Leo gets it.

For the time being, the box goes back under his bed. Leo hops on his bed with a sigh. He absentmindedly taps a rhythm on his chest while he stares at the ceiling. Donnie hurt himself. He hurt himself bad. Leo hurts himself, too. Sometimes. A part of him wonders if this is his fault. If Donnie came up with the idea of hurting himself through their twinlepathy connection.

Should Leo teach him ways to hurt himself that don't end deadly? Should he try to make sure Donnie never hurts himself again? That would be hypocritical, wouldn't it? Wouldn't _Leo_ need to stop hurting himself? He doesn't know what to do. Raph would know what to do, but Raph probably would never have to deal with this specific problem.

Leo decides he can't really wait much longer. Just the tiniest little cut. Hardly even a cut. More like a scratch. He needs it. **Now**.

The blue ninja slips out of his bed and down to the floor. He carefully puts Donnie's wrapped shuriken aside while he digs through for something that will fit his needs. One of those disposable razors, plastic and meant for shaving. It's perfect for a scratch that'll scab over in no time. Exactly what he needs right now.

He uncovers his let arm first. The freshest cuts there are old scabs. It's actually been, like a week or two since Leo's done this to himself. Definitely not breaking any records. As he does it, he wonders again if this is a good time to do this. Donnie just hurt himself not too long ago, right? To heck with that. He does it once more, still so shallow it hardly even bleeds.

The sting helps his brain. Leo feels like he can breathe better. Think better. And he thinks that maybe taking that shuriken out of the lab may not have been the best idea. The blue leader puts everything away again, neatly. The tissue-wrapped shuriken, he leaves out. Maybe he could find some way to bring it to Dad and use some excuse about taking it? Or maybe Draxum, since he didn't get so... emotionally invloved in situations, kinda.

No, those are dumb ideas. There's no good reason he has to sneaking it out of the lab. It could look like he's trying to cover up for Donnie. Maybe he is. Maybe he should. Maybe he should. What would a good leader do about this? Leo groans out loud. "Being a leader is haaaaaarrrd." He has to do better. He has to BE better. For his brothers.


End file.
